Sustainable business in 2013 | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/series/2013-predictions
Reflections on the sustainability movement in 2012 and a forward thinking perspective on what 2013 holds for the CSR world from Guardian Sustainable Business contributors.en-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2015Tue, 31 Mar 2015 21:22:20 GMT2015-03-31T21:22:20Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2015The Guardianhttp://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttp://www.theguardian.com
What can 2012's biggest sustainability stories tell us about 2013?http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2012-biggest-sustainability-stories-climate
From changing perceptions on climate change in the US to big names being tackled on tax avoidance, the signals are all there<p>Are we where we need to be on sustainability? Clearly not. But is there reason to be optimistic? Absolutely. At a societal level, public expectation of the positive part businesses can play in tackling social and environmental issues <a href="http://www.edelman.co.uk/2012/01/levels-of-trust-hit-new-lows-among-uk-public-survey-finds/" title="">is increasing</a>. And this reflects a general shift in values that is starting to lock sustainable change into business practice – reinforcing the good, castigating the bad, spurring governments to provide the greater certainty required. At an individual company level, there are plenty of great innovations to celebrate.</p><p>Yet, as we do so, we should remain mindful that many of the most impressive examples are driven by clear sight of mega forces, such as climate change and resource scarcity, that are only intensifying in their severity.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2012-biggest-sustainability-stories-climate">Continue reading...</a>Guardian sustainable businessClimate changeInnovationCollaborationFri, 04 Jan 2013 15:31:34 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2012-biggest-sustainability-stories-climateJulio Cortez/APSuperstorm Sandy's devastating assault on New York and New Jersey made many climate doubters rethink their stance. Photograph: Julio Cortez/APJulio Cortez/APSuperstorm Sandy's devastating assault on New York and New Jersey made many climate doubters rethink their stance. Photograph: Julio Cortez/APPhil Drew2013-01-04T15:31:34ZWill 2013 bring a new, sustainable world?http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-new-sustainable-world
The new year brings with it a host of ecological, governmental and social issues but a new world is, and has to be, possible<p>They were right, the world has ended. The world as we knew it came to an end more or less when the Mayan calendar ran out, on winter solstice, 2012.</p><p>The old world that died in 2012 had a stable climate, cheap commodities, governments managing change, high growth in output and consumption, and corporations driving economies and serving societies all deeply infused with a blind belief in free markets.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-new-sustainable-world">Continue reading...</a>Guardian sustainable businessResource efficiencyICTFri, 04 Jan 2013 12:19:20 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-new-sustainable-worldAndy Rain/EPAAn Occupy London protester holds a banner during a protest outside the Bank of England in London. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPAAndy Rain/EPAAn Occupy London protester holds a banner during a protest outside the Bank of England in London. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPAPavan Sukhdev2013-01-04T12:19:20Z2013 predictions: the long-term changes that will reshape our worldhttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-predictions-long-term-change-world
From the internet of things to the realities of climate change hitting home, Aron Cramer makes his predictions for 2013<p>A healthy dose of scepticism is in order whenever one attempts to foresee the future. Events usually make great sense in retrospect, but are difficult to predict at the time. The daily hum of headlines, breaking news and Twitterfeeds may distract us from the underlying changes taking place.</p><p>With this in mind, the best way to think about 2013 is to consider the long-term changes that are reshaping our world – some with visible effect, and some under the radar.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-predictions-long-term-change-world">Continue reading...</a>Guardian sustainable businessClimate changeInternet of thingsWed, 02 Jan 2013 16:05:44 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-predictions-long-term-change-worldEduardo Munoz/REUTERSThe reality of climate change?: Lower Manhattan, New York, during a power outage caused by superstorm Sandy. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/REUTERSEduardo Munoz/REUTERSThe reality of climate change?: Lower Manhattan, New York, during a power outage caused by superstorm Sandy. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/REUTERSAron Cramer2013-01-02T16:05:44ZSustainability meets financial reporting and commercial opportunitieshttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-prediction-sustainability-financial-reporting
Tony Juniper shares his sustainability hopes for 2013, a year in which he'd like to see business tools that better reflect the economic value of nature<p>Sustainability has dipped out of the headlines, but 2013 may still bring important progress with an increasing number of companies realising that their prospects depend on benefits provided by nature.</p><p>A growing number of corporations are achieving short-term growth by cannibalising the very sources of wealth that will sustain them in the long term. <a href="http://www.trucost.com/published-research/43/universal-ownership-why-environmental-externalities-matter-to-institutional-investors-full-report" title="">Research</a> demonstrates how this comes with some big numbers attached. As a result, the business case for sustainability is changing and being elevated from one that rests on reputational enhancement to a far more strategic position that is about the longer-term protection of core business.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-prediction-sustainability-financial-reporting">Continue reading...</a>Sustainability reportingGuardian sustainable businessWed, 02 Jan 2013 10:35:23 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-prediction-sustainability-financial-reportingBarbara Walton/EPALoggers in Burma. A growing number of companies are realising they are cannibalising the sources of wealth that will sustain them. Photograph: Barbara Walton/EPABarbara Walton/EPALoggers in Burma. A growing number of companies are realising they are cannibalising the sources of wealth that will sustain them. Photograph: Barbara Walton/EPATony Juniper2013-01-02T10:35:23Z2013: a year to fight for scale in advancing sustainabilityhttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-scale-advancing-sustainability
Scale is the 'unreasonable challenge' we must meet to drive forward sustainability. Simon Zadek explains how to achieve this<p>Two words, socialism and capitalism, share the top spot in Merriam-Webster's <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/2012words.htm" title="">words of the year</a>. Bigot came in third, just beating democracy in fifth, both of which streaked ahead of eighth place, malarkey.</p><p>Scale is the zeitgeist in the world of sustainability. And although it's not in Merriam-Webster's top 10, it gets my vote for the most used word of the year. And there is a lot of it about. Our planet entertains more than 7 billion people, we are <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/jun/29/zettabyte-data-internet-cisco" title="">awash with digital data</a>, our use of energy use has increased from 35 exajoules in 1900 to <a href="http://www.theoildrum.com/node/8936" title="">550 exajoules in 2010</a>, life expectancy at birth has increased by 21 years since 1950 and almost a billion people watched the opening of the London Olympics.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-scale-advancing-sustainability">Continue reading...</a>Guardian sustainable businessScaling upFri, 28 Dec 2012 09:30:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-scale-advancing-sustainabilityLucas Jackson/ReutersMitt Romney and Bill Clinton pass each other during a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in September 2012. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/ReutersLucas Jackson/ReutersMitt Romney and Bill Clinton pass each other during a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in September 2012. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/ReutersSimon Zadek2012-12-28T09:30:01ZSustainability will prompt redesign and gain recognitionhttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-predictions-redesign-recognition-rainforest-alliance
The Rainforest Alliance's president hopes 2013 will see sustainable redesign across large companies and at field level<p>Assuming the Mayans got it wrong, and we are still here in 2013, the move to a more sustainable world will be slowed by continued economic and political turmoil (the former in Europe, China and America and the latter in Africa and the Middle East). Our political leaders, for the most part, are playing a defensive game on sustainability so innovation will continue to come from business and civil society. Pressure will mount on government to provide incentives for sustainable consumption and production, though getting rid of bad incentives such as subsidies for unsustainable agriculture will continue to feel like Don Quixote tilting at windmills.</p><p>The private sector and civil society will partner around water conservation and quality, aim to reduce industrial use and contamination, increase agricultural efficiency (the sector uses 60% of the world's freshwater) improve access to potable water, and ensure long term supply. Energy use and emissions reductions will continue to be a priority, though the sheer scale of the change needed will continue in a go-slow and depressingly insufficient mode. For example, deforestation is responsible for 20% of the world's emissions, and could be much reduced with government and market incentives for sustainably produced wood and agriculture products and forest carbon. The recent United Nations negotiations in Doja however did not move this forward appreciably, and 2013 is unlikely to see this improve.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-predictions-redesign-recognition-rainforest-alliance">Continue reading...</a>Scaling upGuardian sustainable businessFri, 21 Dec 2012 10:56:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2013-predictions-redesign-recognition-rainforest-allianceTony Karumba/AFP/Getty ImagesFlower farmers in Kenya are redesigning their land so it protects the community watershed, composts waste and creates closed loop systems. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty ImagesTony Karumba/AFP/Getty ImagesFlower farmers in Kenya are redesigning their land so it protects the community watershed, composts waste and creates closed loop systems. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty ImagesTensie Whelan2012-12-21T10:56:10Z'Sustainability mind' needed for change at corporate, government levelhttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/2013-prediction-austerity-green-investment-market-reform
In our series on hopes for sustainable business in 2013, Adrian Henriques dreams of a world where sustainability becomes real<p>What hope can we hold for 2013? I think the most profound change we can hope for is that the recent growth in awareness of sustainability becomes real, rooted and universal. Grounds for such hope can be found not only in the UK but, perhaps paradoxically, also in the environmental damage that is troubling more and more people in China.</p><p>Change at all levels depends on a new sustainability culture – &quot;sustainability mind&quot; or &quot;planet mind&quot; – becoming commonplace.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/2013-prediction-austerity-green-investment-market-reform">Continue reading...</a>Guardian sustainable businessThu, 20 Dec 2012 08:59:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/2013-prediction-austerity-green-investment-market-reformSuzanne Plunkett/REUTERSIt's possible that green investment in the UK will return as the "face-saver" for a "failed austerity programme". Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/REUTERSSuzanne Plunkett/REUTERSIt's possible that green investment in the UK will return as the "face-saver" for a "failed austerity programme". Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/REUTERSAdrian Henriques2012-12-20T08:59:00ZIndifference and the effects of COP18: have we missed the boat on climate change?http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/2013-prediction-climate-change-cop18
In the latest in our series on hopes for sustainable business in 2013, psychotherapist <strong>Rosemary Randall</strong> calls for more focus<p>Psychotherapists aren't fond of making predictions. The individual psyche is too full of conflicts, too labile and too contrary to make prediction a rewarding move. Is sustainability any easier to predict? I doubt it. There are as many conflicting currents in the bigger psychological landscape as in the individual one.</p><p>The interaction between political events and individual psyche is complex. Although public events can seem remote, we experience them emotionally – with anxiety, amusement or disgust for example, depending on what is featured and what we allow to affect us. These moods feed back into the actions of powerful players and produce what I call a public psychological landscape. There is the sense of an overall terrain – desert, pasture, mountain or wilderness – populated by features that come and go as you travel through it.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/2013-prediction-climate-change-cop18">Continue reading...</a>Guardian sustainable businessClimate changeTue, 18 Dec 2012 09:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/2013-prediction-climate-change-cop18Troy House/ Troy House/CorbisCOP15 was the day the world missed the boat and the political and psychological landscape changed for sustainability. Photograph: Troy House/ Troy House/CorbisTroy House/ Troy House/CorbisCOP15 was the day the world missed the boat and the political and psychological landscape changed for sustainability. Photograph: Troy House/ Troy House/CorbisRosemary Randall2012-12-18T09:00:00ZWill 2013 be a breakthrough year?http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/2013-prediction-wwf-green-game-changers
WWF's <strong>Dax Lovegrove</strong> opens a new series in which our expert contributors and the Guardian Sustainable Business advisory panel offer their predictions for sustainability in 2013<p>Many politicians are stuck on a brown economy, while many business leaders understand the necessity for a green one. Ambitions in large parts of the private sector are getting bolder, and this could be taken to the next level in 2013. I suspect we'll see a number of breakthrough activities.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/2013-prediction-wwf-green-game-changers">Continue reading...</a>Guardian sustainable businessTue, 11 Dec 2012 12:00:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/2013-prediction-wwf-green-game-changersDaniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Consumer Goods Forum is already committed to zero deforestation in the supply chain; will integrated water stewardship be the business commitment made in 2013? Photograph: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty ImagesDaniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Consumer Goods Forum is already committed to zero deforestation in the supply chain; will integrated water stewardship be the business commitment made in 2013? Photograph: Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty ImagesDax Lovegrove2012-12-11T12:00:00Z